1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to protective equipment for shielding a wearer's body from unwanted forces and potential injury. More particularly, the present invention relates to protective equipment having moveable armor modules for providing a wide range of unfettered body movement while providing maximum cushioning against blows imparted upon the upper body during athletic competition.
2. Description of Related Prior Art
Upper body protective equipment is commonly worn by participants of contact sports for the purpose of preventing injuries to their shoulders, back, and chest. These kinds of injuries ordinarily are associated with sports such as lacrosse, hockey, and football. In these contact sports, various situations may cause upper body injuries. Examples of these situations include tackling or otherwise bumping into other players, falling to the playing surface, being struck by another player's game equipment, or being struck by the game ball itself. Of course, upper body protective equipment may reduce or prevent injuries resulting from various other circumstances, including those not associated with contact sports.
Existing upper body protective equipment utilizes a relatively significant amount of foam padding for absorbing the energy of blows delivered to the wearer's upper body. Moreover, a rigid cover, typically made of plastic, usually overlays the foam padding to distribute the force of the blow across a larger area of the foam padding. As is known in the art, distributing the force in this manner permits the foam padding to absorb a substantial portion of the energy associated with the blow thereby preventing the force from being imparted directly to the wearer's body.
One drawback of foam padding is that the repeated compression and expansion of the foam padding may over time cause the foam padding to fatigue and lose its ability to absorb energy. Another drawback is that the combined use of the foam padding and the rigid cover adds relatively significant weight to the protective equipment. Heavier equipment is undesirable as it causes a wearer to expend more energy participating in the sport due to the burden of having to carry this additional weight.
Another drawback of existing upper body protective equipment is that the rigid cover can interfere with the free movement of the wearer's limbs. For example, a relatively large rigid cover can be utilized to protect the wearer's shoulder. The edge of this rigid cover can become sandwiched between the wearer's upper arm and his neck or simply pinch the wearer's neck as the wearer lifts his arm, e.g. when a lacrosse player begins to throw the lacrosse ball. This obviously causes significant discomfort to a wearer and can interfere with his ability to participate in the sport. Moreover, it is contemplated that the rigid cover can be positioned over other portions of the body and prevent the wearer from freely moving various other limbs. Attempts to provide protective equipment that provides increased freedom of movement for a wearer have resulted in a corresponding decrease in the amount of upper body protection provided. There is thus a tradeoff between freedom of movement and maximum protection.
Yet another drawback of existing protective equipment is that the contiguous rigid cover and foam combination typically forms a continuous section of padding that can substantially insulate the wearer's body. In other words, the protective equipment can form a thermal barrier that prevents heat from efficiently dissipating from the wearer's body. This thermal barrier can substantially increase the wearer's body temperature as he generates an increasing amount of heat during his participation in the game. This result is obviously disadvantageous because it can decrease the comfort level of the wearer, compromise his physical ability to participate in the sport, or even present a risk to the wearer's health.
Still another drawback of existing upper body protective equipment is that the equipment can include a series of external belt fasteners utilized for attaching separate padding sections of the garment together. These external belt fasteners are disadvantageous because they can provide a hold for opponents or otherwise allow for the opponent's equipment, e.g. lacrosse stick, to be caught thereon.
A further drawback of existing upper body protective equipment is that they can include separate portions of decorative fabric that are stitched together. Stitching these portions of fabric together is disadvantageous because it typically requires a substantial amount of time to stitch the fabric portions together. Moreover, the size of these stitched designs is limited due to conventional sewing or stitching processes. For this reason, the manufacturing cycle time and the costs associated therewith can be substantially high. Moreover, to reduce these increased costs, existing upper body protective equipment can instead include decorative markings that are painted or otherwise applied to the surface of the rigid cover. However, these markings have minimum longevity and can be easily scratched or otherwise scraped off the protective equipment, including during normal usage. Such results clearly are undesirable.
Therefore, a need exists for a piece of upper body protective equipment that cushions against powerful blows, allows for the unfettered movement of the wearer's arms in all directions, efficiently dissipates heat from the wearer, decreases the weight of the equipment carried by the wearer, and decreases the manufacturing cycle time and the costs associated therewith.
Protective gear also exists to protect other parts of the body from injury during contact athletic events. Such protective equipment includes, gloves, elbow pads, shin guards, and hip pads. Similar to the upper body protective equipment described above, this protective equipment can include similar structural limitations and thus suffers from the same deficiencies discussed above.
Therefore, a need also exists for protective equipment to cover any part of the body and cushion against powerful blows, allows for the free movement of any of the wearer's limbs in all directions, efficiently dissipates heat from the wearer, decreases the weight of the equipment carried by the wearer, and decreases the manufacturing cycle time and the costs in connection therewith.